Sunday, February 04, 2007

Rally for Whole Earth Bakery in Tompkins Square Park

Above : Peter Silvestri , in lower left corner above globe , owner of the Whole Earth Bakery with friends and fellow vegans in TSP on Sunday afternoon .Many friends gathered along with various activists to enjoy Peter's vegan cooking and baking in the park and to celebrate his 18 years in the neighborhood and to help find a new location for his vegan cooking and baking business .Peter is being forced to move from his place of business on St . Marks Place , where he has been since 1988 , by another greedy landlord ,Friedman Management , that wants more money than Peter can pay . A common and familiar story in the East Village today ,unfortunately .

Several people spoke , some of whom are pictured below .

Above : The Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping and his choir .

Please call or stop in the bakery if you can help Peter! 130 St. Marks Place 212-677-7597

Peter needs someone to go with him to look at spaces or even set up appointments and volunteer in anyway to help him to take steps to keep this gem that was here before Whole Food going. If you have any ideas or contacts with Whole Food, philanthropic groups or anyone who can volunteer in any capacity to help or even write his landlord....This is a dire situation....

Thanks again for your coverage of this Bob because The Villager on behalf of their "special relationships" cut me out of the piece and Lincoln forwarded me an email that said I did not say anything different from anyone else. He also was concerned that I was running for political office.

I did have several important key issues that were erased from the villager article.

Firstly I thanked the community for taking action and Filomena Silvestri who died at 94, died knowing we fought for her and we won a mini-miracle...a small extension.

I also demanded every mega dorm in the area that used the term community facility to supersize the neigbhorhood open their doors to us with community outreach resource centers which would give us computer use, a table to ask for volunteers and mentors, and also help support our small businesses.

I write about this now because the same guy who authored this piece had the arrogance to call and try and interview me for the Cooper Union piece you just covered.I told him off and told him to date people still compliment me and tell me I was they most dynamic speaker and I tell them about what you and the villager did.

I told him to never call me again.I told also to cut "the ///////".

We need people that are going to document what is happening and to date Peter is still hanging in there and has now until December but is precarious and shady.